Contemporary Artworks Research Articles

Exploring the Materials and Condition of 20th-Century Dolls in Zoe Leonard’s Mouth Open, Teeth Showing 2000

Systematic condition and analytical surveys were carried out on Zoe Leonard's (b. 1961) Mouth Open, Teeth Showing 2000, an installation artwork in Tate's collection consisting of 162 children's dolls. The dolls were manufactured at various points within the 20th century and encompass several potentially problematic synthetic polymers found in modern and contemporary museum collections. To explore the doll materials and conservation condition, a multi-analytical approach was used to identify key synthetic polymer types and additives present, including portable and bench analytical techniques. Challenging degradation phenomena associated with different types of doll have been discussed and related to their material composition, which has helped our understanding of the conservation challenges inherent to this contemporary artwork.

Pace by Nino Migliori: Examination, Analysis and Treatment of a Contemporary Color Photography Experimental Artwork

The present work intends to focus on the examination, analysis and treatment of Pace, a contemporary color photography experimental artwork created by Nino Migliori in 1973. Given the particular nature of the artifact, in which the photographic materials and the media of contemporary art coexist in a complex interaction, an in-depth study of its creation, structure and components was deemed necessary to plan and perform an adequate conservation treatment. The preliminary research was conducted in order to contextualize the artwork within the author’s production, to understand the creation process, to identify the photographic technique of the print and the stratigraphic sequencing, and to characterize the constituent materials of each layer through non-invasive and micro-invasive diagnostic analysis. The severe detachments and lifts of the print from the underlying aluminum panel and the subsequent planarity alterations of the photograph, strongly compromised the legibility of the artwork and put its future conservation at risk. Therefore, the elaboration of a minimally invasive intervention methodology was required. Approaching contemporary works of art, which are at the same time also photographic objects, can present some theoretical and practical challenges, and in the near future lots of professionals in the field of art conservation are probably going to face analogue conservation problems on similar objects. The results obtained through the preliminary study phase and the conservation treatment may offer a good starting point for further research on how to examine, analyze and treat this kind of photographic objects.

The Integrations of Islamic Patterns in Malaysian Contemporary Art

The National Cultural Congress which was held in 1971 has brought the idea of national identity into art and served as a guideline for Malaysian artists in their creative process. In this context, Islam becomes one of the main elements in representing our cultural identity. As a result, Islamic patterns serve as symbols and styles that were applied in most contemporary art in Malaysia to interpret the connections between man, the universe and their Creator. This phenomenon has witnessed the emergence of many important and interesting works created by major Muslim artists with various unique methods of applying Islamic patterns. Consequently, the objectives of the present study are to explore the style of Islamic patterns integrated in Malaysian contemporary artwork, to examine the strategies or methods used by the artists in producing their artwork and finally, to analyze the philosophy and the concept of Islamic patterns that are being projected in Malaysian contemporary artwork. Works by five significant artists namely Dato’ Syed Ahmad Jamal, Sulaiman Esa, Fathimah Chik, Mastura Abd Rahman, and Ahmad Khalid Yusof have been chosen for the present study which used Feldman’s approach to art criticism as its methodology. The present study indicates that all 15 artworks from the five selected Malaysian artists implement the style based on the elements of the Malay cultural heritage as well as the influence of the Islamic concept and teaching. Most of the patterns and motifs found in all the artworks studied are directed to Islamic philosophy such as arabesque patterns, Islamic calligraphy, floral motif, and geometrical pattern. The present study also shows that the main strategy used in all the 15 artworks is in accordance with the four principles introduced by Ismail al-Faruqi comprising repetition, stylization, denaturalization, and abstraction. It is hoped that the present study will create awareness among Malaysian artists and audiences of the importance and significance of Islamic patterns in contemporary art.

Narratives of Enfoldment: Multi-linear and Parafictional Storytelling in Media Art

Narratives have been witnessing a state of enfoldment within the virtual world(s) since the proliferation of transmedia story worlds and new media art works. The aesthetics of enfoldment are discussed by Laura U. Marks within different trends in media art. She follows a genealogy of media art that has its roots in premodern Islamic concepts. Enfoldment is therefore situated as the broad framework of this paper’s discussion. Since the prevalence of the concept of transmedia storytelling, coined by Henry Jenkins in 2007, different franchises (be it in entertainment and others) have adopted certain narrative tropes to create a transmedia presence or universe. One of these tropes is the usage of multi-linear storytelling. Multi-linearity is one of the forms narrative storytelling that liberates a story from its temporal structure, making the consumption of narrative open to the end user. Parafiction, on the other hand, denotes instances when the lines between fact and fiction become blurry creating contemporary artworks where story worlds are essential for the dissemination of the works themselves. According to Lambert-beaty (2009) “the slew of recent writings trying to describe or explain this condition ranges from philosophical explorations of ‘the ethics of the lie’, to moralist warnings about our entry into ‘the post-truth era’” (Lambert-beatty, 2009). The following article aims at disseminating past scholarship on multi-linear and parafictional storytelling in trans and new media art in an attempt at shaping the theoretical framework of my doctoral thesis project; a podcast series intended for online dissemination that features conversations between a fictional character and non-fictional historical figures.

Грейсън Пери. Постигна ли художествената керамика своя Ренесанс?

In 2003, the prestigious Turner Prize for Contemporary Art of the Tate Britain Museum was awarded to the artist Grayson Perry for his painted ceramic vases. This award has been described by many institutions across Europe as a positive reappreciation of the ceramic material in the contemporary art world, and Grayson Perry has been seen as a precursor of the long-awaited ‘renaissance’ of ceramics. When compared to contemporary artworks executed in other materials, contemporary works using or entirely executed in ceramics show no thematic or expressive limitations conditioned by the specific qualities of the ceramic material. However, ceramics still has a very limited presence on the contemporary art stage. Historically layered cultural classification prejudices in society and the difficult specificity of the ceramic metalanguage are cited as the main reasons for the undervaluation of this material.

The role of multimedia in promoting artistic practices for the works of contemporary artists

أن توظيف الوسائط المتعددة في الفن تعددت لتشمل جميع ميادين الفنون البصرية، وسعى اليها الفنان من أجل تقديم صيغ إبداعية جديدة تجمع ما بين كل أنواع التكنولوجيا وتقديم فنون ذات طابع وهوية مختلفة تجمع بين التصوير التقليدي والرقمي، والمجسم والمتحرك، وبين الملموس والمحسوس، وبين الواقع الحقيقي والواقع الافتراضي، وغيرها من المفاهيم والمصطلحات الفنية المرتبطة بالمجالات الفنية التي لم يعد بينها فواصل في ظل التطورات والتغيرات المتسارعة. ويأتي هذا البحث ليعرض دور الوسائط المتعددة في مجال الفنون البصرية في إمداد الفنانين ببناء لغوى وتشكيلى متجاوز الحدود المادية لعنصرى المكان والزمان، بداً من الاستعانة بالوسائط كوسائل للتوثيق والنقل أو العرض للتجارب الفنية، أو من خلال تضمين حلول أخرى مختلفة ومتعددة مثل أستخدام النصوص اللغوية والرسوم التوضيحية والخرائط، أو الصور الفوتوغرافية أو التسجيلات الصوتية والمرئية كلافلام، الي أن أصبحت اداة وتقنية لممارسة مختلف العمليات الابداعية المعاصرة، وقاسم مشترك بين مختلف الاتجاهات الفنية المختلفة من الفن المفاهيمى، والفن البيئى وفن الارض فن الحدث و الاداء وفن التجهيز وفن الفيديو والكمبيوتر. استخدمت الباحثة المنهج الوصفي والتحليلي في استعراض عدد من تجارب العالمية المعتمدة في أنتاجها على محتلف الوسائط، أظهرت النتائج اعتماد الفنان المعاصرفي انتاج أعماله على التصوير الرقمي، والفيديو كما اعتمد على الضوء والحركة، والأعمال الإفتراضية والمجهزة رقمياً فى الفراغ وهي جميعها تقدم أشكال عديدة لممارسات الفنانين لتوظيف الوسائط التكنولوجية. توصل البحث أن هناك عدد من التجارب الناجحة توسعت في استخدام الوسائط بدأ من استخدام الكاميرا الفوتوغرافية إلى ما يسمى بتقنية النانو آرت جديرة بالدراسة والتحليل.

The evolution and development of pop art in the visual field of digital art design

Pop art originated in Britain in 1950, became popular in the United States in the 1960s, and then spread to Italy, Japan and other countries. It pulled art from the high altar, obliterated the boundary between art and life, and made art less inscrutable and obscure, but more affinity. This paper focuses on the pop art style in modern and contemporary art and design works, and discusses the audience's demand for pop art pop culture in the context of contemporary multiculturalism. As a common, popular and commercial art form, pop art has exerted a subtle influence in many fields of design. It emphasizes interest and rebellious spirit, affecting the diversified development of design. This paper is an accurate control of the current design trend, and also a practical exploration of digital redesign of pop art style.

H. Skovoroda in the Works of Ukrainian Artists

This paper analyzes the creative heritage of H. Skovoroda, his literary pronouncements on the role of art in the cultural heritage of the reference period. Along with dialectics of philosophical thought of H. Skovoroda, an important principle of his work, namely symbolism, which was inherent not only in Baroque emblematic poetry, but also in the visual art in general at the time, is revealed. Philosophical reflections and symbols of H. Skovoroda were understandable and highly sought not only in the Baroque period, but also throughout the time. It is thus with good reason that philosophical and ethical views of H. Skovoroda influenced the artistic conceptions of many Ukrainian artists, first and foremost those belonging to M. Boichuk, H. Narbuta, V. Krychevskyi, O. Bogomazov, K. Malevich and others.
 This paper expands the concept of emblematics, symbolism of the Baroque and its quotation in the modern Ukrainian art. It has been brought out that the image symbolism of H. Skovoroda in their creativity expressed the idea of Ukrainian Sacrum, sophistication and cordocentrism. The philosophy of Ukrainian art, based on the idea of Sacrum, as well as on the sacral signatures of the national fine arts, developed its own understanding of both art and artistic concepts that reflected the revolutionary “mythmaking” and transformed the stable Ukrainian archetype into new artistic images.
 Skovoroda’s teachings have always attracted artists by their uniqueness, the significance of opinions, the depth of spiritual understanding of both the world and man, while his mystical symbolism is still quoted in the works of Ukrainian artists. Skovoroda’s figure is embedded in the historical process of understanding both the man and the world around, and his views can be projected not only onto the past, but likewise onto the present. In Ukrainian fine art and iconography, the philosopher’s dream of the harmony of human existence, the greatness of his spirit and self-knowledge is still maintained.
 The expressed allegorical nature of Skovoroda’s philosophical meditations is reflected in the symbolism of both the past and contemporary works of art. The illustration of a conceptual idea in terms of images-symbols is kind of “l'instant épié”, which aims at the most adequate expression of the artist’s point of view, when reality is transformed by flair, and everything that the artist’s brush touches rises above everyday life and becomes poetic.

Unfolding Political Emergence: The Knowledge of Visual Artworks in Peter Weiss’sThe Aesthetics of Resistance

Starting out from the interpretation of Picasso’s Guernica in Peter Weiss’s The Aesthetics of Resistance, this essay discusses how, why, and for what purposes Weiss inserted extensive discussions of classical and contemporary artworks in his novel. More specifically, and by introducing the two notions of the foldout and political emergence, the essay investigates how the visual artworks in Weiss’s narrative reconfigure understandings of temporality, collectivity, and realism. A central question concerns the novel’s way of transforming representations of objective oppression, and even death itself, into figures of emancipatory subjective agency. Analyses of the novel’s interpretive engagement with visual artworks such as Guernica demonstrate how these sections of the novelistic text interrupt historical temporality, establish a transhistorical collectivity, and superimpose the experience of the victim with the perspective of the witness. In this way, it is argued, Weiss’s narrative enables an identification with the mute experience of destruction while converting that experience into a future-oriented political force: the emergence and continuation of collective struggle.

Art, Media, and Fashion: Negotiating Queerness and Catholicism Through Depictions of Saint Sebastian, From the 15th Century to the Present

ABSTRACT Queerness and Catholicism have historically been at odds with one another. The Church’s condemnation of queer individuals was pervasive globally for centuries, yet one way queerness and Catholicism converge is via Saint Sebastian depictions. The purpose of this research is to examine how and why Sebastian, a Catholic saint, has come to serve as an icon for the queer community as well as how dress has been used in depicting shifting representations of the Saint from the 15th to 21st centuries. Drawing upon the historic method, we critically analyze the meanings present in imagery of Saint Sebastian. Through our study of portrayals of the Saint, several key themes have emerged. Several of these contemporary artworks incorporated written language that reifies sainthood and associated suffering. Furthermore, many artworks’ overall composition surrounding Saint Sebastian reinforced sainthood through contextual visual elements. Ambivalence in depictions of Saint Sebastian’s fleshy body was apparent, with an emphasis on depicting Sebastian within the context of his executions. A gap in time periods and differing artwork styles was observed, with many of our examples being either from the Renaissance or post 1960s. Finally, many of the contemporary artworks surveyed included overt signifiers of queerness, with minimal references to subtle queerness.

The northern-Italy Renaissance in a panel by Defendente Ferrari: A complete study with a multi-analytical investigation

Defendente Ferrari, one of the most important painters of the Piedmontese Renaissance, was extremely active in the early 16th century. His Madonna with Child and two Saints (1505–1510 ca.), which was originally located in the Collegiate Church of Carmagnola (Turin province, Italy) now in the collections of Palazzo Madama - Museo Civico d’Arte Antica in Turin, was recently analyzed and restored at the Centro Conservazione e Restauro La Venaria Reale, as part of a study and conservation project focused on the artist and his circle.This study presents an interdisciplinary and multi-analytical archaeometric approach resulting from the collaboration of several universities and research centers. The adopted protocol allowed for clarifying some peculiarities of the artist's painting technique, such as the use of the dotted - a technique applied to render the nuances, volume, and flesh tones of the figures - and that of thin black cross-hatched strokes, drawn to shape the clothes and to define the related volumes and folds. Moreover, specific degradation processes were studied, which apparently occur also in other contemporary artworks with similar features. Of particular interest is the alteration of the blue color of the Virgin's garment, made of azurite and presently strongly blackened.SWIR reflectography performed with a high-resolution InGaAs scanner prototype allowed for imaging both the detailed underdrawing and the careful hatching used to highlight the shadows. The combined application of optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, µ-Raman, FT-IR spectroscopy, and GC–MS has been fundamental for analyzing some specific pigments, binders, and varnishes, as well as for inferring the cause for Virgin's garment blackening. A complete mapping of the pigments was provided through the combination of FORS (350–2000 nm), portable µ-Raman, MA-XRF, and Hypercolorimetric Multispectral Imaging. The latter also allowed for observing the distribution of what is supposed to be either the original or the ancient organic finishing layer, which was maintained during the conservation treatment.This research has brought to an in-depth knowledge of the artist's painting technique and helped the adoption of the best choices for an effective and minimal-invasive restoration intervention.

Listening to Echoes: Racial Violence in Contemporary Art History

Taking its cues from recent scholarship on the crisis of anti-Black violence, this essay revisits a constellation of art world events related to the 1991 police beating of Rodney King: Anna Deavere Smith’s 1993 performance Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, a one-woman play about the riots sparked when King’s attackers were acquitted; the 1993 Whitney Biennial, which included the amateur videotape of the beating that had featured prominently in news coverage and during the trial; and a roundtable discussion about the Biennial that appeared in the journal October. Using the concept of the echo as a figure for a temporal “ongoingness,” I argue that racial disparity exists within art historical and art critical assumptions about time. By virtue of the echoic nature of police violence against African Americans, racialized subjects often have a different relationship to past-ness than white subjects, and thus the capacity to mark events as historical is a privilege to which not all subjects have equal access. Similarly, the ability to deploy the category of the contemporary in positive ways is differentially distributed. Inspired by Darby English’s suggestion that we listen for what “fights meaning” in works of contemporary art by and about African Americans, the essay harkens to the repetitions of the echo to reveal the ways in which time itself is racialized.

Research on the Communication Elements of Cultural Relics and Contemporary Artworks Juxtaposed Exhibition

Research on the Communication Elements of Cultural Relics and Contemporary Artworks Juxtaposed Exhibition

Immersive Experience of the Immateriality

Bu çalışma yirminci yüzyıl avangart sanatçıları ile başlayan sanat eserinin bütünsel ve dokunsal algısının izini, kavramsal olarak Moholy-Nagy’nin film kuramında ve Benjamin’in çığır açan metni “Teknik olarak Yeniden Üretilebilirlik Çağında Sanat Yapıtı”nda arar. Mayeryalite üzerinden benzer bir izleği güncel yeni medya kuramlarında da takip eden bu makale, özellikle Mark Hansen’in insan bedeninin dijital ve gayri maddi imgeleri kavramada merkezi bir konumu olduğu iddiasına ve imgenin duygulanım yoluyla çerçevelendiği fikrine odaklanır. Makalede seçilmiş sanat işlerinde benzer bir dokunsal dönüşün kuvvetlerini araştırılır. Video ve yeni medya gibi gayri maddi sanat işleri ile genişleyen günümüz sanatında, sürükleyici deneyim ve etkileşim ile dokunsal örüntüsünün uzam ve zamanda yayılışı incelenir. Dokunsallığını yeniden düşünmeye amaçlayan bu makalede çoğunlukla dijital çalışmaların gayri maddi doğasının izleyicilerin bedenlerinde yarattığı etkiler aracılığıyla nasıl maddileştiğine bakılıp, ışık ve video yerleştirmeler gibi mekânı dokunsal olarak değiştiren işlerin materyal yönleri araştırılacaktır. Sürükleyici deneyime gönüllü izleyicinin, davet edildiği dokunsal uzam zaman devamlılığında yaratılan etkilerin ve deneyimlerin dönüştürücülüğü tartışmaya açılacaktır.

Application of Gel Method Ba2TiSi2O8 Ferroelectric Thin Film in Contemporary Handicraft Three-Dimensional Fiber Art Works

The concept of “fiber art” not only expresses a kind of art but also reflects the course of this art—the evolution from a material to an art. It also reflects the characteristics of this art form—art produced by materials. This article aims to explore the application analysis of the gel method Ba2TiSi2O8 ferroelectric thin film in contemporary handicraft three-dimensional fiber art works. This article first discusses the influence of ferroelectric domains on ferroelectric thin films and concludes that domains are the basis of various physical properties and applications of ferroelectric materials. By changing the types and quantities of domains, the performance of ferroelectric materials can be controlled. Then the measurement principle of the ferromagnetic resonance line width in the ferroelectric thin film is proposed, and the Ba2TiSi2O8 ferroelectric thin film is prepared by the gel method. Then the ferromagnetism and temperature stability of the Ba2TiSi2O8 ferroelectric film are discussed, and the contemporary handicraft three-dimensional fiber art works are analyzed based on the ferroelectric film. The classical methods to detect ferromagnetic permeability tensors mainly include non-resonance method, Faraday rotation method, resonance method, resonance perturbation method, and so on. The experimental results in this paper show that the polarization strength of the flexible film at high temperature is slightly reduced. As the temperature increases, the flexible film still has a good hysteresis loop, and the saturation polarization strength does not change much. It shows that the Ba2TiSi2O8 structured flexible film has good temperature stability at about 80°C, and the contemporary handicraft three-dimensional fiber art work based on ferroelectric film not only has a good economic mechanism but also has its flexibility and beauty increased by 80%.

A.I.’s vısıon of future cıtıes

Not only has artificial intelligence become ingrained in our everyday lives, but it has also been put to beneficial use in a wide variety of scholarly fields. Over the course of the past few decades, artificial intelligence has developed into an essential component of the optimization strategies utilized in the urban planning and design field. With the diversification and development of algorithms, although artificial intelligence has not yet begun to visually shape our cities, it has begun to be utilized as a design and planning derivative from urban design to planning scale, particularly in the context of smart cities. On the other hand, thanks to advancements in areas of machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, artificial intelligence can now generate authentic images based on texts that are provided. In this study, the perspectives of future cities obtained by text-to-image generation algorithms are analyzed. The visuals obtained with the open-source Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence's predictions about the future are presented in conjunction with numerous AI related contemporary design terms; smart city, sustainability, eco-design, biomimicry, and topology optimization. At each stage of history, the image of the cities of the future first appeared in literature and art before becoming a reality. Synthesizing contemporary works of art and literature in the millions of images that make up artificial intelligence's libraries today can inspire designers to construct our future.

A.I.’s vısıon of future cıtıes

Not only has artificial intelligence become ingrained in our everyday lives, but it has also been put to beneficial use in a wide variety of scholarly fields. Over the course of the past few decades, artificial intelligence has developed into an essential component of the optimization strategies utilized in the urban planning and design field. With the diversification and development of algorithms, although artificial intelligence has not yet begun to visually shape our cities, it has begun to be utilized as a design and planning derivative from urban design to planning scale, particularly in the context of smart cities. On the other hand, thanks to advancements in areas of machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, artificial intelligence can now generate authentic images based on texts that are provided. In this study, the perspectives of future cities obtained by text-to-image generation algorithms are analyzed. The visuals obtained with the open-source Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence's predictions about the future are presented in conjunction with numerous AI related contemporary design terms; smart city, sustainability, eco-design, biomimicry, and topology optimization. At each stage of history, the image of the cities of the future first appeared in literature and art before becoming a reality. Synthesizing contemporary works of art and literature in the millions of images that make up artificial intelligence's libraries today can inspire designers to construct our future.

Cosmology in Contemporary Public Sculpture

The aim of this paper is to study the aspect of cosmological characteristic that relates to the contemporary art works of Ramlan Abdullah. His art work entitled ‘Connectivity’ is currently exhibited at the Laman Seni Arca located at the premises of UiTM Seri Iskandar, Perak. The public artworks consist of five constructed tubular aluminum and stainless steels structure that were created in massive scale. Each sculpture represented the artist passion and artistic experience in life ranging from tittle such as Ayden, Aydan, Sundial, seed and Double Disc. Meanwhile, Cosmology has always been an interesting part of human exploration and investigation on the mystery of the universe. It has been explored by many and has been referred to since the invention of traditional art of the Malays. In the practice of Malay custom, cosmology has been observed and appreciated as apart of Malay tradition. This paper will study on the relations and aspect of cosmology that underlying contemporary public art work. The formalistic and contextual part that relates to this and the elements that connected to it. It will focus on the method of observation through visual preferences and discussion on art appreciation according to Feldman model of Art criticism. The study will provide information on characteristic of elements that relates to cosmology and contemporary public art.

초미학 시대, 현대미술의 패러독스

This study aims to understand transaesthetics presented by Jean Baudrillard within the concept of “The Disappearance of Art” and analyze the works with respect to transaesthetics, which has appeared in the global stage before-and-after the 21st century. Put forth as a type of theory of the end of art in the style of Baudrillard, “The Disappearance of Art” has been accelerated by fellow conspirators who played an active role in the advent of pop art by Andy Warhol which formalized itself as art. This paper intends to discuss contemporary artworks that have lost the critical power, which is unique to art, and sought valuelessness: especially, those by the fellow conspirators who have engaged in the “Conspiracy of Art” by taking on the aesthetics of bad taste, which has involved the impossibility of value judgement since Andy Warhol arrived in the Art World, from the perspective of Baudrillard.

The Work of Nails: Religion, Mediterranean Antiquity, and Contemporary Black Art

AbstractThis article contributes to the study of religion by investigating the ritual significance of the ancient nail, focusing on its material power in piercing curse tablets (defixiones, sing. defixio) in Mediterranean antiquity. It thus brings a humble object and the gestures and labor associated with it more centrally into the study of religion in antiquity. The article also contributes to the study of religion more broadly by developing a theoretical framework derived from contemporary artistic, material practices. I interpret these ancient ritual objects—the materiality and aesthetics of defixiones and the function of the nail—by engaging contemporary artworks by Valerie Maynard, Renée Stout, and Titus Kaphar. In the racial condition of the United States, these artists materialize theory regarding aesthetics, history, and justice, drawing in part from Kongolese minkisi minkondi, which were nailed and pierced to mark rituals of justice.